Demons Will Charm You
by We Stole Vodka From The Optic
Summary: They say demons can charm you with a smile. But only for a while. Dojima visits Adachi in prison. Because Dojima wants to know why.


**OneShot~! :D**

**This one's been crawling around my skull for while. And I must say, writing crazy Adachi is much easier. I liked it.**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

Demons Will Charm You

_Demons will charm you with a smile..._

_For a while..._

_"Why?"_

Dojima's voice cuts through Adachi's insane, black thoughts.

That single word, that single, inane, impossible word makes Adachi look up and really look into Dojima's face. Through the glass seperating the two, Adachi could register clearly Dojima's expressions. And the ex-detective doesn't suppress the smile that creeps up onto his face.

Dojima shivers. There's no humanity in the ghoul-like smile that spreads across Adachi's face. And Dojima struggles to look for the faintest trace of human emotion in the smile. There's nothing. Adachi, Dojima realizes, seemed to be stripped of human emotion. Now, there was nothing but the raw, ghoulish smile that was forever plastered onto his face.

Adachi's voice seems far away when he answers, pressing his forehead against the glass,

"Because I could. Because they _deserved_ it."

~Demons~

The very first time Adachi came into Dojima's office... it was an understatement to say that Dojima wasn't impressed. The man was skinny, gangly... certainly not detective material. Black eyes darted around nervously, equally dark hair sticking up as if he'd taken scissors to his own hair.

Dojima snaps at the new kid to snap out of it. And, not surprisingly, he jumps, startled at the raucous, coarse voice. Adachi steps into the office, scratches the back of his head and apologizes. For once in his life, he's known as Dojima-_san._

Dojima just snorts and gets back to Chisato's file, not bothering to welcome him. Adachi stands there, and just as nervously, unpacks his things.

Dojima wonders if he should've been nicer, more welcome. Would that have changed things? Would Adachi have learned something, under his guidance?

But a voice in the back of his head whispers,

_There was nothing you could do. The man was doomed to hate anyway._

~Demons~

A few months pass. A few more cases are solved. It was around the fourth month of the two working together that Dojima realizes he doesn't know much about Adachi. Chief Arakaki tells him, wisely, to get to know Adachi better.

"The kid just moved from Tokyo, you know. Doesn't know anyone. Probably gets lonely." Arakaki tells him, folds his hands over his desk, and watches Dojima through steel-blue eyes.

Dojima just shrugs and takes his advice.

So, when the aging detective tells his partner that they're taking a lunch break and heading to Aiya's together, Dojima isn't surprised to see a look of pure joy cross Adachi's face. The grin on the younger detective's face makes Dojima want to grin as well. But, he settles with a familial smile.

Sometimes, Dojima thinks back on that day and wonders if it was all part of the plan. Wonders... if Adachi was pretending to be likeable, jovial. Dojima wonders if he'll ever find out. Probably not.

In Aiya's, where the smoke from the ramen gives the place an extremely hearty smell, Dojima twitches his eyebrow as Adachi finishes off his third bowl of the famed 'Meat Dimension'. As skinny as he was, Adachi could _eat._

Dojima asks Adachi questions, and by the look of discomfort on the younger detective's face, the aged detective could tell that Adachi felt like he was being interrogated.

Do you have family?

_No._

Do you like it here in Inaba?

_Kinda._

Any insane girlfriends we should worry about?

_(Adachi turns beet red before answering) N-No._

Why did you come here then?

Adachi doesn't answer this one. Instead, he smiles oddly and looks down, pushing away his _fourth _bowl of the famed Meat Dimension. Dojima sees this as suspicious, shady even. But he quickly throws the thought that someone as quirky as Adachi would be evil.

How wrong he was.

~Demons~

It's a couple days before Souji arrives that the two are sent to guard Mayumi Yamano.

Dojima remembers rolling his eyes when Adachi blushed. Yamano fixed him with a sharp glare and Adachi quickly, too quickly, looked away. Dojima flips open his badge, and escorts Yamano to the Amagi Inn.

Dojima rolls his eyes again when the two trade small talk.

How great the weather is. The hotspots in Inaba. The Amagi Inn's great hot springs. Yes, if Dojima looked back, there was nothing between the two that could've set off any alarms in his mind. To the aged officer, it was just two people sharing polite conversation.

But then again, Adachi always was good at masking his true intentions.

When the door of Yamano's room shuts closed, and Dojima and Adachi are half-way down the hall... Dojima just has to ask,

"She's really pretty, huh?"

The blush on Adachi's face, and the stutter in his reply says it all.

"Y-Yeah."

Now, Dojima only wishes he had caught the split-second smile that crossed Adachi's face.

Now, Dojima wishes he had gone with Adachi to guard Yamano's room from the media.

But, that was_ then_. And Dojima couldn't change _then._

~Demons~

"I've got some paperwork to do." He said, Dojima that is. "Go on without me." Dojima pulls out Chisato's file, deciding to pour over it some more. Dojima doesn't catch the inhuman smile on Adachi's face, but he does catch the jovial reply,

"Okay, seeya."

Dojima remembers falling asleep that night, using Chisato's file as a pillow. When he wakes up, at three in the morning and sees that Adachi isn't there... he thinks nothing of it.

_Probably went home without waking me up. That dumbass. _Dojima thinks as he pulls on his jacket.

Now, Dojima knows exactly where Adachi was. And exactly what he was doing.

And he could've prevented it.

~Demons~

When Yamano turns up dead, the day after Souji arrives in Inaba, Dojima is surprised to see that Adachi isn't mourning over his crush like some idiot. No, Adachi takes one look at the mangled, dead body and runs in the other direction, one hand over his mouth, eyes wide in their sockets.

Dojima narrows his eyes at Adachi's rookie-like behavior. The man was a freaking Junior Detective, for god's sake. So he yells, tells Adachi to run to Junes and get him a damn coffee. Punishment for being so stupid. After washing his face, and nodding, in a morbid way, Adachi runs down to Junes for the first time.

Little did Dojima know, that making Adachi get his coffee would become a custom.

One that Adachi followed without question.

Sometimes, Dojima wondered if this too, was all part of Adachi's master plan.

But that was stupid.

~Demons~

When Saki Konishi dies, Adachi doesn't seem fazed at all. In fact, Adachi's humming to himself as he ropes the crime scene with police tape. This bothers Dojima. And Dojima voices his concern.

"I didn't really know her, and I didn't have a crush on her or anything so..." Adachi trails off, looking down at the ground. Dojima wonders if he's thinking about Yamano. But Adachi swiftly looks back up and grins. He says, in an uplifting voice,

"Well, we can't let anyone else die. Dojima-san, let's solve this case as soon as we can."

Back then, Dojima smiled.

Now, Dojima scowled as he realized Adachi was only pulling his strings.

~Demons~

The months go by in a blue, until the warmth of summer arrives. Adachi brings in a fat guy, and says he's the killer. Says he's been stalking Risette. Says that Kujikawa might've been his next victim if Souji and his friends had intervened.

Dojima takes one look at the fat guy, the camera dangling from the fat guy's neck, the sweaty armpits, the scared look... Dojima asks Adachi what the hell he was thinking. That guy wasn't the murderer at all.

Before Adachi can stutter a reply, Dojima sends the paparazzi on his way.

Dojima tells Adachi that they shouldn't act rashly, or desperately.

Adachi hangs his head and half-heartedly agrees.

They weren't backed in a corner yet, after all.

~Demons~

When the Kubo kid comes in, and everyone pawns the fish-faced loser off to Adachi... Dojima laughs when Adachi rolls his eyes. Adachi doesn't want to interrogate the kid at all. Neither does anyone else in the Inaba PD.

But, Chief Arakaki's word is sub-law.

So Adachi leaves Dojima a cup of coffee before interrogation the supposed liar.

Adachi comes back though, and tells him that Kubo is missing.

Dojima really, really should've seen that one coming.

~Demons~

The case is solved, or so everyone had thought.

Kubo has been caught, pawned off to a cell, and Adachi is nowhere to be found. Dojima finds him quite a few hours later, watching the moon by the riverbed. That was the first time Dojima saw something raw on Adachi's face.

There was a smirk on his face as Adachi looked at the moon. But the feral emotion fades when Dojima approaches, loudly. Adachi smiles, grins in fact, and says,

"Oh. Hey, Dojima-san."

"Stargazing?" Dojima's eyebrow goes up. "You don't really seem the type."

Adachi chuckles,

"I don't really seem the type to be stuck out in Nowheresville. Yet, here I am."

Dojima chuckles as well, smiling,

"City-slicker."

Adachi smiles, but the grin fades, and the twinkle in his eyes dim. He sticks his hands in the pockets of his dress pants, and looks back up at the moon. The raw emotion is gone.

Dojima just stands there, and watches the moon alongside his partner.

~Demons~

The months fly by again in a blur, and the next thing Dojima remembers is the ugly pain he felt when he crawled out of his car. The static in his vision as he searched for Nanako. After that, he remembers seeing Adachi standing over him, helping him lean against the bumper of his trashed rust-bucket car.

There's a concerned look in Adachi's face when he dials the hospital, and Dojima wonders if that was a ploy or not too. Adachi was, however, deeply concerned for the well-being of his partner.

Everything else, remains static. Until today.

~Demons~

Adachi's face is demonic, inhuman, _raw._

Dojima stares into Adachi's face.

"They deserved it. Both of them."

Dojima laces his hands together in his lap.

"Why did they deserve it?" Dojima asks, his voice angry and raucous, like the day the two first met. "What did they do to you?"

Adachi's inhuman smirk extends, and he laughs,

"Because they were bitches and whores. That's why."

Dojima stands up, the chair scraping behind him. He has a resigned look on his face. Because he knows...

That Adachi had simply charmed him with a smile.

But it had only lasted a while.

~Demons~

**Feedback is much appreciated. **


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